eet

Rankin
for people's policies

_ By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

First of all, I would like to thank
the more than 38,000 people who
voted for me in the November 20
Civic elections. It is 8ratifying to be
reelected with such a high vote. I
want to assure all those who
supported me that I will continue to
fight in Council for the same
policies I have been advocating
since (and before) my election,
eight years ago.

The key issues to which [ will -

continue to give my attention are
the need for the city to get into the
housing business on a large Scale,
action to hold down rents and
protect tenant rights, tax reforms
to make industry and commerce
pay their fair (and much bigger)
share of taxes so that taxes on
homes can be brought down, and to
voice the needs of those many
ordinary citizens who would not
otherwise be heard in this big

UNITY STILL CENTRAL ISSUE

business oriented City Council.

Vote strengthens COPE position

After a first look at last week’s
civic election returns, the com-
ment by incumbent mayor Art
Phillips pointing to a return to
conservative politics seemed, on
the surface, to be borne out by the
results.

The return of a city council,
dominated by TEAM and a
resurrected NPA, also seemed to
indicate that little can be expected

in the way of progressive action by °

the new city administration.

But a closer look at the returns
reveals some divergent trends,
notably the strong presence
established by COPE, and the
future may not be quite as Phillips
Saw it election night. Much will
rest on how much pressure can be
brought to bear on city hall from
the outside.

For COPE, the divergence was
most readily apparent and COPE’s
position as a permanent political
force in the city was assured.
Despite the fact that only half as
many aldermanic candidates ran
this time as in 1972, the aggregate
vote was only 11,000 votes less than
in 1972. The average vote per
aldermanic candidate rose
dramatically from roughly 9,200 in
1972 to more than 16,000 this year.

Even excluding the over-
whelming vote given alderman

otherwise somnolent House).

TOM
McEWEN

The gravity of the situation was appalling. What with :

inflation, sex an- all, the empire was going to the dogs.
Dividends from the colonies were shrinking drastically.
Something had to be done about it.

The noble lord eased his ermine-clad carcass out of his
Seat in an archaic House of Lords, adjusted his pince-nez_
with some difficulty, and prefaced his speech with a
couple of fog-horn “tharrumphs” (ostensibly to awaken an

Harry Rankin in both elections, the
average vote still showed a
dramatic increase — from some
5,400 votes per candidate in 1972 to
nearly 11,000 this year.

Similar increases in the average
vote per candidate were registered
in both school and parks board
elections and in every instance
where a candidate had contested a
previous election, the vote was up
substantially, despite a smaller
voter turnout.

Aldermanic candidate Bruce
Yorke, school board candidate
Betty Greenwell and parks board
candidates Donald Greenwell and
Sid Shelton all increased their
totals anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000
votes. The sole exception was
alderman Harry Rankin whose
marginally decreased vote simply:
corresponded to the smaller tur-
nout and the increased number of
over-all candidates.

In contrast, the average vote per
candidate for the NDP rose only in
the council election — from an
average of 8,300 votes per can-
didate-in 1972 to 10,000 this year —
and in the school and parks board
elections, the average remained
virtually the same in both years.

The decline of the NDP relative
to COPE’s position has already
prompted some NDP

the like.

“Moreover what these
nefarious sex conspiracy, and especially the unwed ones,
is to reduce our once-pro

This grave threat to 0

Harrumph!”

The news media |
the class scenario.

Another noble lord, this one ona week’
UBC, also has unlimbered himself of so
the changing sex patterns of Britain’s
Solution to the ills of inflation, althou:
such, followed three main direction
homosexuality,
prostitution, plus his very definite d
of any kind. To the noble lord strikes
especially those involving teachers,

reassessment of its own partisan
role in civic politics and its relation
to COPE on the unity question — of
Paramount importance if city
council is to be made to move over
the next two years.

The unity of progressive civic
sroups was of central concern to
COPE and its consistent advocacy
of the unity proposition found a
considerable response among the
voters. : .

The comeback of the NPA in the

_ election has also given impetus to

the unity question. Apart from
increasing its aggregate vote from
142,000 in 1972 to 244,000 in 1974, the
group also succeeded in putting
four of its candidates on council —
among whom are some of the most
reactionary representatives of big
business.

As in past years, the decisive
votes in favor of TEAM and NPA
candidates have been made
possibly by the disparities in voter
turnout in various parts of the city.
While the average turnout across
the city was 30%, it was as low as
20% in tenant areas, 30% in the
residential east side and as high as
40% in the residential west side.
Thousands of working people
neglected to vote while those on the
west side turned out in force to

See CIVIC ELECTION, Pg. 12

The endorsation of TEAM by
both our Corporation-owned daily
papers (not to mention the more
than generous publicity given to
TEAM while blacking out COPE),
shows that Mayor Phillips and his
colleagues are still the darlings of
big business, or to be more precise,
the developers such as the CPR
who stand to make a mint due to
rezoning concessions granted to
them.

However, it is clear that TEAM
is no longer able to muster the
enthusiasm it did in 1972. The
bloom is now off the rose; its
thorns began to show these past
two years. :

The NPA made quite a
comeback, greater than most
people predicted. I venture to say
that much of its Support came from
people who were not necessarily
re-enamored with the NPA but who
wanted to vote against TEAM. -

COPE made a good showing
including an increased vote for
tenant leader Bruce Yorke who
deserves to be on this Council and
who, I am sure, will make it yet.
The election night rally at COPE
headquarters showed that its
candidates. and membership are
more determined than ever to
carry on and become in fact, the
alternative to both the NPA and
TEAM.

The NDP made a dismal
showing, securing only about seven
per cent of the popular vote, quite a
drop from two years ago. This is a
direct result of the go-it-alone
policy of its city leadership and of
its refusal to accept the hand of
Cooperation offered by COPE and
the trade union movement.

If the reform forces could unite
around one slate of candidates and
one program, I am sure I would not
be alone on Council toda*". Labor
and other reform groups would be

es fight

Council anda say in all decision

—one before it. The NPA lasted f

We facea tough battle in the bi '
two years. Both the NPA inle
TEAM will do everything poss) i
to give the developers a Be ap
at City Hall, and Mayor P.
has already announced tha
intends to press for a three ¥

TEAM in there as long as oe 1
without having to answer
voters. F
What we need is not longer **
but a ward system, so that nal
area of the city will have a VOl@™

i]
not just those who speak for
developers, as at present. An F
must be answerable to the V0"
at least every two years. ae

TEAM isn’t going to have Ni
easy in the next two years aS |
in the last two. Not only bec i
its bare majority of one in Cou 1
but because the issues ope
becoming sharper and the P& @
want action to solve them. ¢
the CPR the green light on ‘ding
Creek and the waterfront, buu® ;
that dismal concrete mall, me
over the Orpheum theatre — f
of those actions will help the te J
dinary citizen. It’s housing, ™ 4 4
public transportation, jobs ed
prices that people are con¢e F
about. : ,

We'll just have to contin ;
pressing this TEAM domin@) 9
Council even more, than we oro

: tast
years; I doubt that TEAM will el

for more than four. 1976 coul bY
be the year for the reform fore a |
secure a majority, provided the
can unite and overcome

provided us the story. We only supply —

S lecture visit to
me lordly puff on
“lower orders.” His
gh he didn’t term it as
S: his approval of
his disapproval of on-the-street solicited
isapproval of strikes
are simply shocking,
doctors, nurses and

represented on the Council, the present divisions.

monopoly gougers and noble lords!

— and act.

system whose time has come!

the House of Lords.

bt an!
and the apple would have gone the way of His Lordship f

5 70)

empire for, to this noble lord, one of the blesses :

' homosexuality is that it produces no addition roby
flationary burdens on the harassed taxpayer, the

* 5 : ites:
leaving more for armament buildups, imperial parasit

le
It may be noted in passing that neither of these oe
lords in their dissertations on sexology as it af t
Britain’s “dower orders,” made any mention of 7a
major scandals of prostitution, corruption, a aie
espionage and worse which shook the august HO a
Lords to its very foundations in recent times; of inci vind
like the Profumo case, which well illustrated a Fr’ ish
Caste decay well into the rotting stage — a sort of BC
Watergate which told its own story to all who could

These lordly yarns on sex, inflation, strikes and the like;
grossly insulting to the British working people who ire)
the burdens but not the causes of a declining st a
remind us of the stories we have heard about the ne al
of recycling toilet paper — a fitting finale to a S

If and when Britain or any other imperialist empite i
Saved from the inevitably destructive effects of inflata 4
it will be by the common people of factory, farm no
school; by the ordinary common people to whom ee ing
dignity, peace and human happiness mean res f
more than the wordy passage of air in the-musty ha